Edgar Slaviskav
Often considered by his contemporaries as one of the greatest military minds of a generation, Edgar Slaviskav served as a field marshal during the later years of The Bloody Decade and head of the Tselchi army during The Grand Campaign. Known for his fearless cavalry charges and incredibly comprehensive usage of combined arms, Slaviskov gained a reputation for being an incredibly challenging opponent to face on the field and as such commanded respect from allies and enemies alike, especially gaining praise from Byllic field marshal Herrigan Finch after personally capturing him during the Battle of Siennas. Today, aged past 80 years, Slaviskav still lives and is largely respected by the Tselchi public, though was dismissed from the army by the new tsar Ruhr the First. Since his dismissal, he's been noted as living a quiet life with his family in his frontier estate, built after the Grand Campaign as a reward for his victories under the orders of Kemelver IV himself. Early Life Born to two peasant parents in 1929, Edgar wasn't expected to amount to much in his life. Growing up on the estate of a local Yalrut, he and his family were assigned to keep the forests well maintained and hunt game to provide things such as venison to the estate-owners. Due to the nature of this work, Edgar was from the age of 7 expected to be proficient with a rifle and begin to learn all the ins and outs of the local landscape, tasks which the young boy took surprisingly well to. By the age of 13, his skills with a rifle were so impressive that even the Yalrut's personal guards were impressed by them, and by 14 the Yalrut himself was signing up Edgar to participate in marksmanship competitions, several of which he won. Due to this excellent showing of ability, Slaviskov was permitted to join the Jrolchesmaalt (''lit. "Hunter Brigades), ''where he continued to show excellent ability and discipline. By 16, he held a rank within the Jrolchesmaalt equivalent to a regular army corporal. "Baptism by Fire" In 1945 a unified Dyrrvak resistance had taken over the Tselchi-controlled County of Wsparcie, an event which would spark a 10-year long civil war. With the Tsardom's initial responses failing, and a military disaster unfolding under the leadership of its badly outdated armies, more and more men were called up to fight, and on the 6th of July 1945 Edgar would be called to service. He'd find himself places into the 24th infantry division, a newly formed unit made almost entirely out of conscripts and former members of paramilitary groups. During his transport to the front lines, Edgar would note several times in his journal about his lack of confidence in his unit, comparing those who he found himself with to the professional cossacks and regulars who he would occasionally get the chance to see during train stops, concerns that would swiftly be confirmed after contact with the enemy was actually made. Ordered to prepare a defense, the 24th infantry division found itself in open combat which would see the fresh-faced soldiers torn into, and in only 30 hours would 965 men with even more wounded. However, despite this, Edgar himself would impress his peers by showing excellent soldiership and scored 14 confirmed kills with his rifle. This pattern would continue, Edgar and his division being forced into hasty defenses which typically would end in defeat and high numbers of casualties, yet despite this, the Tselchi head of the army Gregorios Boyar called up the division to assist with several others in a new offensive operation. The Assault on Kakklos Ridge would see Slaviskav and a large detachment of his men joined by cossacks and hussars alike, tasked with the capture of Hill 40 which was one among several large, fortified positions that needed to be taken along the ridgeline. Many would later call this Slaviskav's baptism by fire, as before few knew who he was but afterward many of the higher members of the army would begin to take an interest in him. The ascent up the ridge would begin at 9:30 AM, and while it was expected that heavy artillery bombardment would have pushed most of the defenders off of the hill, it became clear by 10:30 this was not the case, yet the unit was ordered onwards regardless. Becoming bogged down and forced to fight from treeline to treeline, the defending Dyrrvak held stubbornly onto their elevated positions, made worse by the fact that Dyrrvak shamans were slowly turning the ground into a mire of mud. However, lead personally by members of the legendary 1st Cossack division, the Tselchi pushed on, Edgar personally leading a squad of approximately 30 men up towards the hill's summit faster than even some of the cossack squads, and to the shock of everyone it was Edgar and his men who would personally throw the explosives which would tear apart the bunker which awaited them atop the hill, allowing for the rest of the advancing army to swarm and throw the Dyrrvak off of Hill 40. Allowed some rest, Slaviskav and a few of his men were assigned to a machine gun post overlooking one of the pathways up. However, this rest would only last for a few short hours, as other units were not so lucky and only 30% of the planned objectives were taken, allowing the Dyrrvak Liberation Army to launch a violent counterattack. During the entirety of this Edgar manned his machine-gun post, and to the absolute shock and awe of everyone there would heroically hold his forward position even when risked with being overrun, firing his gun until it ran out of ammunition then sneaking his way back to the top of the hill. Though they would lose the hill and the battle, Slaviskav would receive a total of 85 confirmed kills in that single day, and earn the name: "The Bulwark of Hill 40". The Gilded Hussars As The Bloody Decade would progress the Tsardom would find itself slipping further and further towards total defeat, especially as more and more of the valuable professional soldiers were being cut down due to poor leadership and being replaced with inexperienced conscripts, however, due to the rigid caste system of the Tselchi people some of those professional soldiers could not even be replaced, most notably the cavalry. Historically both the Cossacks and the Hussars, the two parts which make up all of the Tsardom's mounted warriors, were limited to specific classes of people. The Cossacks were the elite heavy cavalry which were made up of tribesmen and nomads from the vast wildlands within the tsardom, while the Hussars were the light cavalry who were made up entirely of the nation's noble caste. However, with the desperate situation and a lack of noble manpower, an entirely new Hussar division was formed which would be made from soldiers pulled from other divisions. This selection process was incredibly harsh, and only the best men from each unit would even be considered to be called upon, yet stil,l Slaviskav's impressive results at Hill 40 and generally great reputation saw him among the first to be called back to the capital to undergo additional training. By the time the unit would be fully assembled Edgar would hold the title of a Cavalry Lieutenant, and would be leading an entire column of about 150 riders into battle. While most doubted the potential of the 16th Hussar Division, dubbed the "Gilded Hussars", they would be swiftly proven wrong with the immediate success they had in driving back Dyrrvak forces several times during the Second Battle of Fahklos and later do the time at the Battle of Tetrasgrad. Edgar would be quickly distinguished by his lack of fear, willing to lead his men into even the most perilous of situations with confidence and almost always coming back with succesful results, during the aforementioned Battle of Tetrasgrad, Slaviskav and his column of riders would slam into the flank of approximately 500 well-armed Dyrrvak soldiers, drive a wedge between then and completely break their formation, killing approximately 300 of them as they routed. As successes piled up Slaviskav would continue to rise through the ranks at an ever-accelerating pace, a rate at which even the most well-off of nobility found themselves envious of. Slaviskav's Charge and Ascent to National Hero By 1950, Edgar would already become one of the three commanders of the entire Gilded Hussar division, where he'd shine as a commander, quickly being recognized at the de facto leader of the division. This seemed to be just in time too, as in 1950 the Dyrrvak Liberation Army was on their way to the major city of Civecsk where Gregorios Boyar's armies were being crushed in battle after battle. The Gilded Hussars would arrive onto the field as the Dyrrvak fought their way towards the city suburbs, and Edgar himself ordered a blockade be prepared in preparation to meet the advancing army. Only 10 hours after this order was given the hussars and a large army of Dyrrvak would meet, both sides settling into a standoff, which allowed the Hussars to be re-enforced by the 2nd and 19th infantry divisions. Once the fighting would begin the Dyrrvak would swiftly begin to take the advantage due to their vastly superior numbers, slowly but surely pushing uphill while dealing as many casualties as they were taking. The tides would swiftly turn though, as Slaviskav personally detached a large number of the Hussars and repositioned them even through the chaos of active battle. After a series of artillery barrages from the city itself had slammed into the Dyrrvak's backline, Edgar ordered his men forward and took the lead of them personally. They'd swiftly appear over the ridgeline, descending downhill at the exposed Dyrrvak left flank, and with their backline still recovering from the barrage only limited magical aide came, once this charge would strike the entire left wing of the army was devastated. The Dyrrvak commanders restored order to the best of their ability, but it was far too late, and despite dealing heavy casualties to the Hussars the day was lost and the army inevitably broke after only another 2 hours of fighting. During all of this Edgar refused to leave the field, despite during the whole battle haven taken a bullet to the leg and having two ribs broken by magic missiles. Though after this battle Slaviskav had to be taken off of the field for medical attention, and the entirety of the Gilded Hussars pulled back due to heavy losses, they had almost single-handedly halted the momentum of the Dyrrvak Liberation Army and gave the garrison of Civesck severely needed time to prepare defenses. In the end, the Dyrrvak would fail to take the city, and Edgar would be hailed as a national hero, even receiving praise from Tsar Kemelver IV and being given the rare honor of being granted nobility. While the Gilded Hussars recovered things would slowly begin to look up for the Tselchi in the seemingly endless conflict, though most of Boyar's offensives still ended in only limited gains and high casualties. Fed up with this, Tsar Kemelver would remove Gregorios Boyar as head of the army, and divided up all of the Tsardom's forces into 3 armies. The second of which would largely consist of mounted soldiers, and when the Tsar had to think of someone to give the command to he nearly instantly mentioned the young yet capable Slaviskav. Though his advisors argued with him against this, citing Slaviskav's age as being a disqualified, Kemelver offered him the position regardless. So, in 1952 Edgar Slaviskav would be named the Hetman of the Second Army at the age of only 24 By 1955 the entire 2nd army would be entirely reformed and retrained, turned from the outdated mess it was only 10 years beforehand into a modern and efficient army, in no small part thanks to Slaviskav's forward-thinking. His newer training methods inspired by the Byblian ones along with requests for larger amounts of casters to be integrated into every unit while attacking narrower fronts turned the war against the Dyrrvak from a desperate struggle to a decisive victory. During his years as a commander, he'd completely defeated the Byllic Volunteer Army, personally capturing Commander Herrigan Finch after surrounding his fortress and then even afterward managing to rally his most elite warriors into slaying 3 dragons summoned by Dyrrvak shamans. The Interwar Years After The Bloody Decade the majority of Tselchi citizens settled back down into their normal lives, most people simply happy to see the end to a conflict which some speculated could take an additional five years to properly end. However, for Edgar this time of settling back into normal life would not happen, as he was offered by Tsar Kemelver IV a post as the new overall head of the army. Slaviskav would reluctantly accept this offer, as he noted in his personal journal that he was hoping to use his newly acquired title of nobility to found an estate to become a Yalrut. Despite his reluctance, however, Edgar took well to his duties of continuing to modernize the army and find new ways to innovate and improve it. As the years would pass Slaviskav would begin to take an increasingly negative opinion on the Tsar, transitioning from seeing him as an idol he was honored to serve to seeing him as a military strongman who was both stupid and incompetent. The two would have many disagreements, especially of the Tsar's constant desire to use his newly modernized army to invade his neighbors, an act which Slaviskav knew would upset the far more advanced neighboring Human nations due to upsetting the balance of power, and so he had to play a juggling act of keeping the Tsar in-line without overstepping his boundaries and losing his position. Edgar would write with dissatisfaction how his job would dominate his entire life, especially once he married at the age of 30 and only two years was the father to a pair of identical twins. Despite this though, Edgar would keep at his work due to fear that whoever may replace him if he quit would be someone who would easily bend to the Tsar's will. In the decade directly preceding The Grand Campaign, Edgar and Kemelver would be noted as having argued several times about the state of the Dyrrvak people. Slaviskav would grow to have more sympathy for the Dragonborn and their cause as he grew older, and found Kemelver's methods and ensuring they remained within the Tsardom's grasp particularly distasteful, on two occasions the Tsar accused Edgar of treason for his thoughts on the matter, though nothing ever would end up coming of these accusations. The Grand Campaign Beginning in the 1970s Tsar Kemelver, who's ambition was in some parts checked by the other Human nations, began negotiations with the Aldrian Archduke Alexander Hemway and later on with leaders from all 4 other great Human nations. From these meetings came a new agreement and plan: total domination of the continent by the Human powers, divided up into spheres of interest. The only nation which would reject this plan would be the Byblians, and as such plans were set forwards and The Grand Campaign became inevitable. In 1979, when the invasion to the Dwarven Confederacy was to begin Edgar initially rejected this offer citing it to be: "Foolish and shortsighted". However, when the Tsar threatened to see him replaced and another field marshal to be put in charge of the army, Edgar was quick to bitterly accept. Eager to see his task done swiftly, Edgar's plan would involve splitting his forces into two primary army groups, Army Group East and Army Group West, who would strike at the lowlands surrounding the mountainous Dwarven heartland, in order to cut the Dwarves off from easy access to the sea and basic necessities such as grain. When this invasion would begin Edgar would see his tireless reform work finally pay off, as Tselchi armies now fully equipped and officers now taught in new ways in warfare would crush even armies that were ten times larger than theirs. Battles such as Gyr Crossing and Brah'Beran would show the devastating effect of an army operating with modernized tactics engaging an army stuck 100 years in the past. Dwarven Patriarchs, who demanded control over the armies over the confederacy's more capable and experienced military commanders, fought in open fields and clumped up groups against a far technologically superior enemy. Army Group West easily pushed their way all the way to the coastline and systematically began the capture of every harbor while Army Group East, personally lead by Slaviskav, would settle from pitched battles into a long and drawn-out siege of the major city of Caher'Sulan. To Edgar's displeasure he'd find this siege being much more difficult than any of his advisors anticipated, lasting all the way into the winter months with little sign of progress. However, on a particularly snowy day Edgar spotted an opportunity as the winds and fog intensified and it looked as though a blizzard was to set in. Ordering immediate heavy bombardment artillery pieces created a cloud of smoke alongside the already existant white-out, which Slaviskav ordered his officers to prepare an assault through. Though casualties were high, the Tselchi managed to use the fog and smoke as cover to largely evade Dwarven defenses, and despite high casualties managed to assault and take the city, leaving the entirety of the eastern plains open. With the victories in the West and East, Edgar's plan fully succeeded, as all of the Dwarven lowlands were taken, and every major port the confederacy held was either captured for completely destroyed. Still though Slaviskav knew preparations would be needed before victory in the mountains could be achieved, and he'd already been writing to the Tsar for months requesting infantry which were specially trained in mountain combat and mountain equipment for all his men. To some extent Tsar Kemelver agreed, but with victory coming so swiftly only two small divisions of mountaineers could be sent to the front, and only enough equipment existed for approximately 90,000 men, hardly enough for the Tsar's grand imperial army which stood at well over 700,000.